Thomson

It’s a heck of a way to run a pre-election campaign. On the eve of an expected election, politicians usually spend their time playing up good news, downplaying the bad, shaking hands and kissing babies.

Yaffe: Liberals claim middle ground in oilsands controversy

Public may soon grow weary of rival parties’ all-or-nothing rhetoric

Sun columnist Barbara Yaffe

Photograph by: Handout
, Vancouver Sun

Liberals this week promised a compromise position on Alberta’s oilsands, in contrast to the Conservatives’ unbridled enthusiasm for the project and New Democratic Party’s disdain.

Both the government and official Opposition have opted for pointy-edged positioning on the mega development, practising wedge politics in a bid to corral their respective supporters.

It’s part of a growing polarization that lately has characterized Canadian politics.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been acting as an oilsands champion, touting a jobs-and-growth agenda while NDP leader Tom Mulcair pitches to folks worried about the environment and about a petrodollar making eastern Canadian exports uncompetitive.

As for the Liberals, since becoming “third place” party in the 2011 election, they’ve been searching for a reason for existence, and for a political modus operandi. Now they may be hoping, by stepping forward to bridge the vast gulf between the two main parties on this particular issue, as well as on others, that they can attract support.

Declares a Liberal press release: “Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair want Canadians to believe that developing the Alberta oilsands is an either-or-proposition. That is patently false. … Liberals understand that we can reap the benefits of oilsands development and mitigate the environmental impact, but only if we engage and consult with parties on all sides of this issue.”

The Grits made their point Tuesday as interim leader Bob Rae visited the oilsands after some politicking at the Calgary Stampede.

In a phone interview from Fort McMurray, Rae remarked: “All the polarization has been dysfunctional for this country. We’ve taken a position that it’s not helpful and it’s not where we need to be.”

Rae, to be replaced by a permanent leader next spring, met Tuesday with Syncrude officials at the company’s mining and reclamation sites north of Fort McMurray as well as with aboriginal groups and environmental organizations.

In highlighting the Liberal disposition toward compromise, the party is on to something. Ultimately, any good policy decision reflects middle ground between competing interests.

And voters tend to be more pragmatic than ideological. They soon may grow weary of the polarized positions being put forward by the Conservatives and NDP.

In line with their objective to seek out middle ground between Conservatives and New Democrats, Liberals are resisting doctrinaire positions either on pipelines through B.C. — to enable the export of oilsands bitumen to Asian markets — or on Pacific coast tanker activity.

Rae said this week he has “serious reservations” about the Northern Gateway pipeline’s designated route, given that it traverses land claimed by aboriginal groups.

And he contends the Conservative government has politically tainted a continuing environmental review process.

But, he said, Liberals do not as a matter of principle rule out any and all pipelines across B.C.

The best option for transporting the oil to the coast, he said, might be by way of expanding the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline to the Port of Vancouver.

And while the party is opposing oil tankers off the north coast, it has no immediate objection to more tankers off B.C.’s south coast, where they already ply the waters.

It will be interesting to see whether — through a policy of “engaging all sides” — the Liberals in fact finally have found a way to differentiate themselves to voters, as a party of compromise, one developing policies based on objective analysis rather than ideology.

The risk, of course, is that Liberals will thereby be characterized by their political opponents as wishy-washy and ineffective.